Brazil is getting ready for its fourth renewable energy auction and has received interest from a large number of solar power project developers.
According to media reports, 5 states in Brazil have accredited more than 200 solar power projects with combined capacity of over 9.2 GW. Following the accreditation, the projects are believed to have become eligible for participation in the renewable energy auction scheduled for 29 July.
The auction will be the fourth one in the series of auctions that started in 2014. During the first 3 auctions around 2 GW of solar power capacity was selected.
In an auction held November 2015, just under 1 GW solar power capacity was auctioned at an average price of US¢7.75/kWh which was below the ceiling price. Similarly, in the solar-only auction held in August 2015 saw auction of 800 MW capacity at US¢8.42/kWh.
The tariff bids were very similar to the bids seen in the Indian solar power market where several recent auctions yielded bids of around US¢7.00/kWh. It will be interesting to see if bids in the July auction fall further. A total of 133 hydro power projects with combined generation capacity of 985 MW have also been accredited for the July auction.
Few months back the Brazilian government doubled its solar power capacity addition target for 2024. Under the 10-year Energy Plan for 2024, the government announced target to have 7 GW of utility-scale and 1.32 GW of distributed solar power capacity.